Friday Morning Cliff Notes #2

My Take on how the President’s opening bid is meant in part to bait Republicans:

Clearly, one of the things the White House offer is intended to do is to smoke out Republicans on the math. One of the things the President is most frustrated about and feels he’s got a really strong hand on: Republicans cannot make up the loss of the tax revenue, if they want to lower the amount of new tax revenue, with spending cuts that are the least bit popular. If they want more entitlement cuts, if they want more discretionary spending cuts, if they want Pentagon cuts, the President wants them to specify them. And, this offer is intended, in part, to say, “Here’s my math. Here’s the level of deficit reduction I can reach. If you think you can reach the same or more with more spending cuts, you go first and name them.”